


adventures of catren: meeting ratgoro

by brynhildvelvet



Series: akiren week 2019 [1]
Category: Persona 5
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Fluff, Gen, cute animals!, sojiro looks after the whole gang, the phantom thieves as fluffy animals!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-08
Updated: 2019-04-08
Packaged: 2020-01-07 02:25:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,603
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18401252
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brynhildvelvet/pseuds/brynhildvelvet
Summary: Renren the cat meets a new small friend, Gorogoro the rat. Will they get along when cats and rats are notorious enemies? All of the pt as animals au.akiren week day 1: best friend/worst enemy





	adventures of catren: meeting ratgoro

**Author's Note:**

> in case its not clear
> 
> ren: cat  
> ryuji: dog  
> ann: cat  
> yusuke: fox  
> makoto: ferret  
> futaba: rabbit  
> haru: sheep  
> goro: rat :)

On most days Renren played well enough on his own. He would grab his favorite squishy dagger and roll and roll across the floor wrestling it. Occasionally stopping to take a nap when the sun hits his favorite spot on the floor or the shelf or the window chair for luxurious, claw-kneading relaxation.

When curiosity strikes he investigates the cafe he calls home, checking in with his humans: the tall gruff apron-clad man who embodies the smell of the cafe itself, a severe dark clad woman he is not as fond of but acknowledges Fufubun likes, and the small human with fluffy hair often wearing a yellow bandana around his neck.

He would rather laze around for most of the day but he just has to keep tabs on all of his companions. They have called this place home for so long he knows all the others’ habits and where to find them.

Stalking along on the bean shelves, Renren heads straight for knocking things off that he knows wouldn’t break. The gruff one made sure he understood that knocking those thin white cups from the special drawer off surfaces would mean he would lose the privilege of being in the cafe with his friends.

Today, for some reason his friends were all put in a room upstairs and to the yard outback. He hears Ryuwan and Anneko tumbling around on the floor upstairs when they play. When he napped he dreamt of tussling with them, or watching Fufubun in her enclosure nervously rearranging her food and bedding over and over. If he peers from the shelf into the window of the door to the yard he can see Yusune inquisitively exploring the plants and collecting flower blooms to arrange in his nest, his tapered vulpine snout poking about the verdant spring foliage.

Harumee and Makoto converse in a language Renren doesn’t know as Haru ambles around the yard browsing and Makoto scurries furtively and ferretly in her general area, doing Makoto things with a single-minded purpose, whether it be trying to groom that specific patch of Harumee’s curly wool right behind her ears or perching on Haru’s back purveying the world from Tokyo’s gentlest and sweetest wooly steed.

Renren finds his target in a wooden cup that may or may not be specifically purchased for this single purpose, to plummet to the cafe floor and roll in circles as if trying to escape his paws. Well it doesn’t flee so easily as he bats it. Left! Right! Left! Right! Tackle it! Commencing gnawing on it.

After its defeat, and until it poses as a challenger once again from the counter from whence it came, Renren stalks away from its corpse in victory.

He comes to a halt, registering the sound of keys at the cafe door and the silhouette of the gruff one in a split second. He darts over to sit neatly by the door, it was unusual for the human to not tend the cafe the whole day. 

In fact, the only times he has ever been absent for a whole day was when…

Indeed, the man opens the door with one hand and behold! He carries a plastic box that has a grid of holes in its door so that whatever is inside can breathe.

Renren gets up to slink over immediately and slalom between the human’s legs. He can SMELL that there’s an animal in there, hello, hello?! Introduction please!

“Geez, calm down Ren. Don’t get too excited now, or you’ll scare him.” He places the carrier on the counter, scoops Ren up with one arm no problem and puts him in his own cat cage. Renren doesn’t meow in protest but he feels he adequately conveys his feelings about this situation with his piercing stare.

Placing the carrier on the floor, the man opens it and speaks to the one inside, softly and gently. He backs away from the carrier.

Moments later, a tiny nose pokes out, sniffing and sniffing the perimeter of the carrier’s opening before a rat in a toffee brown color comes scooting out on the cafe floor. Renren stands up and paces his tail curling in curiosity in the air behind him. He watches the little rat in rapt attention. He wants to know everything about this new little friend.

“Ren, meet Goro, he’ll be staying with us from now on.” The gruff one smiles softly watching Gorogoro making his way around exploring and comes over to scratch Renren under his chin. Renren barely pays the man any attention, concentrating too much on the rat.

Over the next three days since his arrival, Gorogoro gets to know his new home. Naturally Renren is one of the things he is most interested in. He comes over to sniff at Renren often and gauge his reaction. Renren’s only reaction is to vibrate silently with excitement as he lets the rat explore, trying to not startle him. Once, he flopped his tail down in front of the rat and the rat nuzzled its face through his expansive soft fur. The cat’s heart melts immediately in adoration.

Sometime on the second day, Gorogoro sat up on his hind legs and poked his snout through the wire, Renren cautiously leaned down to touch noses with him. Renren felt a special bond in that moment. 

Over the several days, they took turns between who roamed free in the cafe and who stayed sectioned off. The rat was adept at getting into odd places, even breaking into boxes and cabinets that the gruff one did not expect, forcing quick adjustments to rat-proof the cafe. Gorogoro’s craftiness and intelligence impressed Renren, who also loved getting into troublesome places. Oh, how he wanted to be the rat's friend, so they could get into all sorts of mischief together.

The part that made Renren the most excited for their first bars free meeting was the affection the rat exhibited. Towards the end Gorogoro would lay on the floor in front of Renren with his little rat face resting on one of Renren’s paws as they just watched each other through the wire cage.

And when left alone and napping, the cat dreamed of curling up with the rat and cuddling, grooming him so he feels safe in Renren’s home.

It seems Gorogoro and Renren would get along, despite popular belief that cats and rats are sworn enemies.

On the fourth day, Renren is watching Gorogoro exploring as usual, right now snuffling around the soil of the cafe rubber plant, when the gruff one comes over.

“Alright then,” he says, crouching down. “are you ready for the big test? Take it easy on him, okay bud?”

“Mrrrrp?” Huh? What's he talking about?

And then the cage door is opening and on pure instinct, Renren is already halfway across the cafe to Gorogoro. He doesn't how it happened, his body simply moves so fast in all his excitement to really meet the rat.

Gorogoro catches on to the fluffy black cat approaching him at the speed of light, and quickly scurries up the rubber plant he was investigating. Renren circles around the base worrily, meowing all the while. He can't chase him up because he knows the plant can't hold his weight.

Wait what? They were getting along fine for the past several days, why won't he come down. Pleeeaase. Renren yowls.

But no matter what, for the rest of the day, Gorogoro doesn't come down when Renren is in the room.

The gruff one sighs at him, “You scared him, stupid cat, remember to give him space.”

He comes over to scritch around Renren’s ears. “Not everyone is ready to be friends, don't get too darn excited.”

Renren meows sadly, watching where he knows the other creature is hidden in the leaves.

He knows he messed up. Super bad.

Renren goes and plays with his other friends sometimes, but he's always thinking about Gorogoro and when he'll get to be close to him like he wants. He didn't mean to scare him!

The gruff one let's them be in the same room, once he confirmed Ren won't make the same mistake again. Renren does his usual antics and laying around for awhile, giving the rat space.

When he knows Gorogoro is watching he lays down and exposes his belly to him and rolls around. Please can we play? He tries to convey to the rat, but Gorogoro only watches him, whiskers twitching and beady eyes observant, not making a move towards him.

Days later, Renren is laying on the windowseat in the sun, tired and happy after a vigorous romp with Yusune outside. Yusune can pin him down easily since he's larger, but it's fun to push him around and nip at him because Yusune lets him, requiring some riling up to actually use his fox reflexes and challenge Renren.

The cat drifts off, tail swishing contently, as the cafe sounds filter through the air and sleepy fog, when he feels something land next to him and start wiggling into his space.

It stills for a bit, then several moments later, the warm, furry little body snuggles in under Renren’s chin. He moves accordingly to accommodate. They adjust so the other’s head rests on his neck and his body is tucked between Renren’s forelegs.

When Renren peeks his eyes open carefully, he spies toffee colored fur in the corner of his vision. He sighs happily, they're finally laying together like he wants. It just took some patience to let Gorogoro operate at his own rate.

Renren pulls Gorogoro tighter against him in his hug.


End file.
